Ian and I met on the internet. Many of you might think that's a bad thing, but people meet on the net all of the time, and it was by total accident really that we came across each other. It's a VERY long story, but I'll try to make it short.
Once upon a time, when I was a sophomore in high school, I joined a fan site for my favorite author, C.J. Cherryh. It was called Shejidan, and Ian and I both were members (surprisingly, I joined on his birthday, October 13th!) That fan site is where it all began, quite by accident.
Fast forward oh, about three, maybe four years. College student, diligently attending the Culinary Arts program at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Just started into the world of MSN and Yahoo online chatting, and had made a few friends who I would regularly chat with in the evening times. Some of those friends were from the fan site, and we all conversed and enjoyed the company of another mind without having to clean our sitting rooms and make tea.
So, I sign in that night, and was surprised when an MSN chat window pops up, with about 8-10 "Shejidanites" all happily chatting away. I was pleasantly surprised, and joined in. One of the members, who was noticeable very by the long username he went by, but who introduced himself simply as Ian, asked if he could friend those of us who were not already on his list, which included me. I said sure, and that was the very first time I met the personality of the man I am marrying.
The relationship that slowly grew conducted itself like any face to face relationship. I was cautious with my internet interactions, and trust was slow to build, but build it did. The man, who lived so far away and spoke so openly about himself, never ceased to fascinate though. At first, he was almost too chatty for me! But I got over that and started to look forward to his company, whenever he came on at his peculiar times (we were 17 hours about; when I signed on in the evening of today, he signed on in the morning of tomorrow).
Fast forward again for some uncounted bit of time (maybe a year and half or so). He informs me of a trips he's going to take, and I say "Come visit, you can see the Charles Schultz museum!" (among other things.) The original plan was for him to meet up with some friend in SoCal, and then drive up with the friend to see me, but the friend flaked at the last minute. So I said, just come up here for a week. He agreed.
We first met in person on the corner of E Street and Santa Rosa Avenue. After the double take, my first thought was "I feel like I know that man but I've never seen him before." After he first said hello, I spent most of the following week with my brain turned to mush, and gradually decided that here was a person I could share something with. I was hesitant at first regarding my feelings, because he lived so far away and was several years older than me.
To make a long story as short as possible, it wasn't long after our week together that we admitted our feelings for each other, and we've been together ever since. :)
